Summer Bookends

My summer has been bookended by two overnight adventures with Garage Sail, one awesome and one, well, a bit rough.  And in the middle, some fun day sails with old and new friends.  Overall, definitely a fun year of boat ownership here in Minnesota.  After so many years of building, and now sailing, I finally feel like I have a handle on things.  But of course, only to partially forget it all the next spring.  Two things have made the whole boat experience so much easier this year: a gravel pad next to the driveway to park it, and a backup camera added to my ’06 4Runner, together saving time and stress each outing.

My first weekend trip was to Birch Lake in northern MN.  Like my trip a couple years back, I planned to go for 3 days (2 nights).  But this time, I went in early June to get the best fishing.  With a winter that never seemed to end, that meant only taking the boat out once beforehand, and on a day with no wind so didn’t even bother with the sails.  After the 4-hour drive up north, I stopped off for bait, only to hear that there are 400 fishing boats at the dock.  So I pay for my token $10 lure, and head off around the lake to another ramp I’d seen on the map.  After a 30-min drive, with a very bumpy dirt road, I arrive.  Starting to get everything set up, I find I need to hurry due to the mosquitoes.  So hurry I do.  I get on the water, and oh yeah, beautiful day with plenty of wind.  Start with the jib.  Oh yeah, this is it!  Start to loosen the main, and soon notice the head of the yard is locked to the mast tabernacle.  Soon after that, SNAP!!  The yard was effectively folded over the boom, and broke right at the gooseneck.  Normally, I ALWAYS move the gooseneck from its holder, slide it and the sail tracks over the rail on the mast, lock it in place with a track stop, so that they are instantly ready to go when needed. I’ve barely started the trip, and I can hardly even sail.

Funny enough, it turns out there is so much wind I really only need the jib after all.  I sail into a bay, drop anchor to do some fishing.  Perhaps some time to collect myself and calm down a bit.  So I bring out the new lure. Catch my first Walleye ever, then soon after a massive (well for me anyhow) northern pike.  While reeling it in, I realize I have no I net.  So I try to take a picture, and must have added some slack to the line, and another SNAP, and he is gone.  Gone also is the $10 lure, with the steel leader attached.

So on I sail on (downwind), towards the northern part of the lake, which I hadn’t reached before.  I see some rocks(?) on my printed-out map from a boat rental website, but think they are father off.  And what is the buoy doing over there?  Soon after, another CRASH. Shit, hit the bottom!  With the wind and waves, I’m now just bouncing over the rocks.  I manage to pull up the keel, and leaning to one side, am able to get the motor going and get out of there with minimal additional impacts.

All this in an hour or two!  Do I keep going, or throw in the towel?  Onward I go, and manage to get to the bay I targeted for my campsite by jib alone (except for motoring at the very end, as the bay did its job and blocked out almost all wind).  Beautiful spot, with a beaver dam and no discernible wind or waves.  Concerned about the earlier rock impact, I slide over the edge into the cool early summer water and feel along the lower keel.  I definitely felt the impact at the leading edge (some fiberglass flapping around), but couldn’t press my fingernail into the boat, so I figured all is well.  A few other points of damage, but nothing too serious. I managed to catch a couple more walleye, and then set up for the night.

It was a nice quiet night while nestled into the small bay with hardly a breeze, but unfortunately the mosquitoes have hatched, and find me they did.  I brought along some netting made for sailboat hatches, but it must not have sealed right as they seemed to find their way in just fine.  Luckily I did splurge at the grocery store and get the $1 fly swatter.  I’ve found the Pocketship comfortable enough for spending a night, but it does not do well under anchor with high winds (it swings around, the anchor rode rubs on the bowsprit stay, and the rudder makes constant knocking sounds).

With the wind switching, allowing me to jib sail back, not being able to catch more fish and after a very long prior day, I decide to head back home a day early.

In the end, after much stress and worry, the damage wasn’t bad.  All of it was readily repairable when you have some extra epoxy around.  I covered the damaged area with epoxy and, for the yard, several layers of fiberglass wrapped around the break along with more epoxy.  The only bummer was that it took seemingly half of a busy and short Minnesota summer.

Now that’s enough writing for one day of afternoon football watching.  Next up: my end-of-summer trip to the Apostle Islands.